Oh boy do I have a situation...
I pulled the cover off the pool three weeks ago to find a swamp. We had a baby last year and I'll admit to not taking as much time with closing as I usually do. Strike 1 against me. I started scooping the leaves and vacuuming the bottom...when my pump quit. I ordered a new pump (Superflo VS, which is awesome), but before it came I had to head out of town for a work emergency. A few days turned into two weeks and while I was gone, my wife became concerned about the swamp in the backyard. Knowing that our TA and pH are always pretty stable I told her to go ahead and get some chlorine, the pool definitely needed it, and I figured what's the harm in getting a head start on killing the algae. I had her put in 5 gallons of 12.5% (should have raised pool to 17ppm), brush the pool, and run the robot to circulate. The next day she said it was still green, I told her to brush more and run the robot. Next day, still green, had her add more chlorine (figuring it must have been used up by now), brush and robot again. Still green. My experience from when we bought the house and opened it up to an even worse swamp told me that at the very least, the pool should have been a little less green. I had her add some chlorine every day to at least try to stop things from getting worse. She asked if she could use bags of dichlor because the 5 gallon carboys were hard for her to handle and I said sure, I usually keep the CYA around 40 and we always lose some over the winter anyway (all of this is strike 2 against me, I probably should have at least sent her to the pool store to get the water tested).
So finally I get home and take a look at this swamp. It's bad. Can't see the robot in the shallow end bad. I get out my test kit and realize the the chlorine test powder is completely solidified. Can't use it. Everything else is good except pH. Results were:
TA:60
CH:80
CYA:40 (I believe, but the water was a little cloudy to start)
pH was off the charts low, I did the base demand test, and added soda ash.
I ordered a new FAS-DPD kit, but knew that we definitely needed chlorine. I added 10 gallons day one (should have increased FC by 35) and started to see the green turn blue. Added another 2.5 gallons per day until today when I got the test kit. (strike 3 against me)
Today's results:
FC: 65 !!!
CC: 5
pH: 7-7.2ish
TA: 70
CH: 80
CYA: 30
The pump has been running for 5 days now with what was most definitely SLAM level FC. The water is cloudy to the point that I can't see the bottom of the deep end, but is definitely not green, if anything it's blue (like the liner). Obviously I'm not going to add anymore chlorine, but what is making the water so cloudy? I assumed it was dead algae and would be filtered out and if it was anything else, the chlorine would take care of it. The CC is obviously pretty high, but if the FC is 65, the demand can't be that high? I did the test twice, 115 drops once and I stopped at 80 the next one just to save the reagent. I'll test again tomorrow, but in the mean time, does anyone have any advice?
I pulled the cover off the pool three weeks ago to find a swamp. We had a baby last year and I'll admit to not taking as much time with closing as I usually do. Strike 1 against me. I started scooping the leaves and vacuuming the bottom...when my pump quit. I ordered a new pump (Superflo VS, which is awesome), but before it came I had to head out of town for a work emergency. A few days turned into two weeks and while I was gone, my wife became concerned about the swamp in the backyard. Knowing that our TA and pH are always pretty stable I told her to go ahead and get some chlorine, the pool definitely needed it, and I figured what's the harm in getting a head start on killing the algae. I had her put in 5 gallons of 12.5% (should have raised pool to 17ppm), brush the pool, and run the robot to circulate. The next day she said it was still green, I told her to brush more and run the robot. Next day, still green, had her add more chlorine (figuring it must have been used up by now), brush and robot again. Still green. My experience from when we bought the house and opened it up to an even worse swamp told me that at the very least, the pool should have been a little less green. I had her add some chlorine every day to at least try to stop things from getting worse. She asked if she could use bags of dichlor because the 5 gallon carboys were hard for her to handle and I said sure, I usually keep the CYA around 40 and we always lose some over the winter anyway (all of this is strike 2 against me, I probably should have at least sent her to the pool store to get the water tested).
So finally I get home and take a look at this swamp. It's bad. Can't see the robot in the shallow end bad. I get out my test kit and realize the the chlorine test powder is completely solidified. Can't use it. Everything else is good except pH. Results were:
TA:60
CH:80
CYA:40 (I believe, but the water was a little cloudy to start)
pH was off the charts low, I did the base demand test, and added soda ash.
I ordered a new FAS-DPD kit, but knew that we definitely needed chlorine. I added 10 gallons day one (should have increased FC by 35) and started to see the green turn blue. Added another 2.5 gallons per day until today when I got the test kit. (strike 3 against me)
Today's results:
FC: 65 !!!
CC: 5
pH: 7-7.2ish
TA: 70
CH: 80
CYA: 30
The pump has been running for 5 days now with what was most definitely SLAM level FC. The water is cloudy to the point that I can't see the bottom of the deep end, but is definitely not green, if anything it's blue (like the liner). Obviously I'm not going to add anymore chlorine, but what is making the water so cloudy? I assumed it was dead algae and would be filtered out and if it was anything else, the chlorine would take care of it. The CC is obviously pretty high, but if the FC is 65, the demand can't be that high? I did the test twice, 115 drops once and I stopped at 80 the next one just to save the reagent. I'll test again tomorrow, but in the mean time, does anyone have any advice?
